I think it’s one of the most evocative images in all of scripture…The Kingdom of God. We hear about it over and over again. Matthew 3:2 – Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Mark 1:15 – The time has come, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. Acts. 28 – St. Paul continued to preach about the kingdom of God with boldness. We hear about this Kingdom of God in Jesus’ parables. He says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…the Kingdom of God is like a land owner who went out to hire his workers…the Kingdom of God is like a great pearl…it’s like a merchant…it’s like leaven. This image of the Kingdom of God is arguably the most central theme in all of the gospels…in fact it appears 70 times in the New Testament. And it appears today in our gospel. No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.

This week I considered this curious phrase made evident throughout the New Testament in Jesus preaching and teaching and what I found out…I think…is very interesting. At the very core of our human experience…particularly of our gospel here today…is the need to come to understand Heaven and Earth. How do we get to Heaven from this earthly experience? Isn’t that what we’re doing here today anyway…why we go to Church…why we pray…why we celebrate the Sacraments…why we feed the poor…why we clothe the naked…why we seek forgiveness with one another and God. We’re trying to get to Heaven through our lives here on Earth.

So why would Jesus continuously use this image of the Kingdom of God being at Hand when we know that Heaven is up there somewhere…the place at which we’re working to one day arrive? Maybe he didn’t want us to look “up there” at all. Maybe Jesus is trying to purify our perspective on both Heaven and Earth.
It has to do with the Jewish idea of Heaven and Earth. The Jewish sensibility concerning Heaven and Earth was very different than the predominant Greek sensibility of the time. Jesus and his Jewish culture was completely immersed in a Greek world view. Interestingly, our modern vision of Heaven and Earth is very much tied to the Greek philosophical tradition. For the Greeks Heaven was very different than earth. For the Greeks this world is where we are now and Heaven is the higher world. This comes straight from the thought of Plato. The idea is that this world is a kind of prison from which the soul is trying to escape. It’s trying to move into a more ethereal realm where the soul will come to know the essence of all that is. Plato would call this the ascent to the forms. For the Greeks…Salvation means getting up out of this world into the highest reaches of being.

Jews never thought this way about Salvation. For a good Jew Heaven and Earth are totally interrelated. In Jewish spirituality the realm of God and the Earth are not so different from each other…they’re not necessarily separate places. For Jews…for Jesus…when he proclaims that the Kingdom of God is at Hand…he’s speaking from a Jewish perspective by which we should not only see Heaven but also how we must see Earth. In Jewish spirituality and theology Salvation is not an escape from earth but rather a transfiguration of earth by heaven. It’s a consecration of God’s creation by Heaven itself. In other words…the Kingdom of God is at hand means that Heaven is visiting Earth right now. Remember my homily from a few weeks back…God visits his People...Yahweh moves among his people. We hear this in other familiar places too. Thy kingdom come they will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. The story of the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor…Heaven comes to Earth…not Earth goes up to Heaven. The Resurrection itself…Jesus doesn’t rise from the dead and look bizarrely different…he stays Human and stays here on earth…walks among them and tells them to touch his hands and his side. This is what The Kingdom of God is at hand means.

And now…2000 years later…it still happens…right here in this church. What does the Catechism call this gathering of people…the Mystical Body of Christ where all of time and space comes in to a oneness at this altar in this Eucharist? It would not be incorrect to say that at this mass all of the Angels and Saints…right here at 210 E. 24th avenue in Belton Texas….the Virgin Mary…St. Joseph…the Archangel Michael…my dad…Fr. Dick…your great great great great great great grandmother…you don’t know her name because she’s too far back in the family tree…they all come here to be with us at this mystical moment in time that exists also outside of time. Right here…the Kingdom of God happens…Heaven and Earth are brought together in our midst. It’s like the Eucharist and all that it elicits in our souls is quite naturally Jewish in its roots.

So our job…our work of discipleship…what we do here and every day…it has to be an embrace of the Kingdom of God being at hand. Our lives must participate in this coming together of Heaven and Earth right now. We must make holy this place…earth…as is Heaven. I’ve said this before…life is really practice for Heaven. What we do here should quite naturally be what we will be doing in heaven. And what will that be? What will we be doing in heaven? Worshipping God with each other in full communion of love and respect. In Heaven there will be no war…in heaven there won’t be disagreements…there will be no grudges…no jealousy…there won’t be anger or hunger or homelessness or poverty or bigotry or abortion or executions or any of the dysfunctional behaviors that disrupt the peace of our souls. Heaven will be completely ordered to God’s beauty…goodness…and truth. The same should be said for Earth. Our job is to make Earth as much like Heaven as we can. This is what Jesus meant when he said go and proclaim the kingdom of God. It’s not complicated. And it’s quite easy to measure…whatever it is that we do on a daily basis…we should ask ourselves…will I be doing this in heaven? If the answer is no…then it’s a pretty god bet that we ought not do it here on earth either. So this is our work for the week…this is our task for our lifetime…starting now…today…from this moment on…go and make this world just like Heaven. The Kingdom of God is at hand.